It's a dog-eat-dog world in `Glengarry Glen Ross'
By JOHN CRAWFORD
Scene Movie Critic
Blake is a motivational speaker, sort of.
His job is to inspire the troops at a Chicago office, but his tactics may be a bit, well, rough.
"You call yourself a salesman, you son of a bitch," he says, before going on to question the manhood of sales force and brag about his $80,000 BMW.
Blake, played by a tyrannical Alec Baldwin, is just one of a roll call of liars, thieves and all-around sleazy guys infecting "Glengarry Glen Ross," a 1992 film directed by James Foley and based on David Mamet's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play. Following a group of struggling real estate salesmen fighting to keep their jobs, "Glengarry" depicts a dog-eat-dog world of suit and ties, gin-fueled business deals and testosterone so thick you can drown in it.
Money and manhood are kings in this universe. Armed with smooth talk and plenty of four-letter words, the salesmen pursue the business deal. Nothing else matters.
"Only one thing counts in this life," Blake preaches. "Get them to sign on the line that is dotted."
To do that, all is game. Continually bothering potential customers? That's fine. Lying to customers? That's OK, too.
The salesmen even contemplate breaking into their own office to grab good sales leads locked in the company's safe.
"Is there an absolute morality? Maybe," muses Al Pacino, while oozing confidence, cockiness and cool in his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Ricky Roma, the salesman on a hot streak who is aiming for top prize, a Cadillac, in the company's sales contest. Second price is a set of steak knives. Third prize is unemployment.
Pacino and Baldwin are part of an excellent ensemble cast that includes Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris and Kevin Spacey. The real star of the movie, though, is the fast, machine-gun dialogue of Mamet.
Clipped and rhythmic, Mamet's writing, which has graced movies ranging from "The Untouchables" to "Wag the Dog," bounces and flips between the characters. It is Ping-Pong with words, language serving as a punching bag. Talk is how the salesmen wage war. At one point, their phones are stolen, leaving the characters literally defenseless, unable to do business. Conversation is what makes them, what defines them as men.
"I swear it is not a world of men," Ricky Roma says. "We are members of a dying breed."
Stand-out performances in "Glengarry" include Pacino, who thankfully doesn't resort to the yelling and "hoo-haas" that have characterized his later work, and Lemmon, who portrays Shelley "The Machine" Levene.
As a once great but now aging salesman, Levene flounders to regain his old magic and keep his job. He is desperate and pleading , and while a big deal temporarily restores his confidence, he is ultimately left broken and pathetic. In a world bathed in continual rain and red neon light, he is another whose manhood has been chewed up and spit out.
As Arkin's quiet salesman George Aaronow laments, "I hate this job."
All Scene Stories for Thursday, February 3, 2000
